Spanish campsites: we will save our summer

We publish an article dedicated to the situation of Spanish campsites and signed by the journalist Marta Santamarina Linera – director of the magazine Panorama and the webmagazine Camping Profesional, as well as responsible for other publications of the Spanish publishing house Peldano related to the camping-caravaning and tourism sector (AutoC; www.autocaravanas.es, www.campingsalon.com, www.bungalowsclub.com).

As for Italy, and some other European countries in the Mediterranean area, tourism is a strategic sector for Spain, where it contributes 12.3% of GDP and 12.7% of employment. Furthermore, camping is the tourism sector that has grown most in recent years. In 2019, Spanish campsites counted more than 40 million overnight stays, setting themselves as the second tourism sector in the country.

Camping in Spain is one of the main attractions for foreign tourists and Spanish families, resulting one of the production sectors most affected by the COVID -19 crisis.

Spain counts 1,100 registered campsites circa, distributed throughout the country, with the highest percentage in Catalonia and along the Mediterranean coast. At the beginning of 2020, the overnight stay forecasts, particularly for Easter and the summer months, were very optimistic. What happened in March, then? After the case of China and Italy, the pandemic hitted Spain mid-month. The Spanish government has declared a state of alarm across the country and, on March 19^th, the Spanish Ministry for Health issued an order to close all tourist facilities, including campsites, and ordered several thousand campers from different parts to leave the country not later than one week.

At Easter time, the beginning of the season for many campsites, the structures saw all their reservations and activities canceled. And the situation further falters, with May and the summer holidays approaching, in an uncertain and difficult scenario for the sector.

During these weeks, Camping Profesional, the main reference for the sector in Spain, spoke with the presidents of the main Spanish camping associations, who invited their colleagues to optimism, betting on local tourism and collaborating with the administration to relief the consequences of this crisis.

Representing the campsites connected to the Spanish camping federation (FEEC), President Ana Beriaín says “The campsites in Spain know that this will be a difficult summer and that it will not be like the previous ones. However, we are already working to offer all our customers a safe and peaceful holiday. We want all our customers to spend an unforgettable summer”.

On his part, the president of the Confederation of Mediterranean Camps, which groups the campsites of Girona, Tarragona, Lleida and the Valencian community, Angels Ferré, says: “It is time to keep on fight, with the attitude the campsites have shown with a growing and consolidated evolution in the last ten years. We have the best cards in hand: nature, outdoor life, family and freedom. We play to win. In every campsite there is a team with a brain and a heart”.

In Catalonia, a pioneering camping region in Spain, with over 300 facilities, the president of the Catalan camping federation, Miquel Gotanegra, recalls that many entrepreneurs who opened their campsites more than 60 years ago survived to many difficult phases: “This year we will attract those new customers who will be able to see what is hidden behind our great holiday parks. There will be an increase in proximity tourism, which will seek a safe and attractive space to spend a well-deserved vacation, and we know that many of our customers from other countries who visit us every year can’t wait to be back”.

To campsites in northern Spain, where the arrivals of tourists depend a lot on the weather every year, the presidents of the camping associations of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country show their more optimistic side and encourage their colleagues to think the future: “Our facilities are sustainable, familiar, friendly and placed in fantastic natural locations. The so marked seasonality that characterizes us, which we have always seen as a handicap, may play in our favor in a situation like the one we are experiencing “.

Camping is the tourism sector that has grown the most in recent years also in the regions of Aragon and La Rioja. Unfortunately, the season that now starts will mark a decrease, but the presidents of the regional associations insist that with a product as good as what they have to offer, the situation will certainly raise up again.

Campsites in central Spain (Madrid and the regions of Castilla León and Castilla-La Mancha) are also in a total paralysis. They are very seasonal activities, which would now face their peak season and for which the loss of Easter earnings and the May holidays are a very important economic setback. However, entrepreneurs hope to save the summer, to return to employ the workers they were forced to fire and to seduce local customers in search of outdoor tourism.

In the south of Spain, Murcia and Andalusia, foreign customers who still enjoyed their winter season under the Mediterranean sun had to be sent away. However, the facilities are working on the reopening, “so our customers will find our facilities in perfect condition and our equipment perfectly prepared to serve them with renewed energy. We hope to attract local customers or even from neighboring countries such as Portugal. Even if we have lost part of springtime we hope to have two good seasons with summer and autumn”.